THE young offenders are placing a half hearted game of football when the visitors arrive at the edge of their recreation yard. They don't want to show too much interest but their curiosity gets the better of them and they wander over to chat.
One, aged 16, thinks he'll get five years for a syringe robbery. "I did the detox. I'm off drugs now," he says. He adds that he's excited, his girlfriend is having their baby in two weeks.
"Look at his eyes," mutters a prison officer. "He's still on the stuff. He's miles away."
St Patrick's Institution sounds like it ought to be a type of borstal or reform school. But it is a fully fledged jail, built in the traditional style with wings radiating from a central hub, adjacent to the larger Mountjoy Prison in Dublin.
St Pat's has 217 male prisoners, including 62 on remand. It should hold only 188. Almost a third of the inmates are aged 16 to 18 years, the rest between 18 and 21. Most are on sentences of up to two years. Four are high security category. Offences range from murder and manslaughter to rape, robbery and drug crimes.
Unlike other prisons, St Patrick's has benefited from having money spent on it in recent years. Cell blocks have been renovated and every cell has a toilet a luxury in the Irish prison system. The roofs of the blocks have large glass sections, allowing daylight into corridors and central areas.
The 16 year old father to be is one of about 70 per cent of St Pat's inmates who are or have been habitual "hard drug" users. The prison offers a short methadone detoxification course but drugs continue to come in last year there were 157 seizures, mainly heroin.
According to chief prison officer Willy Kane cannabis levels fell towards the end of last year, as gardai investigating the Veronica Guerin murder broke up a cannabis importing gang. "But now cannabis is back up again."
The largest seizure of drugs this year took place last Tuesday when a prisoner was caught with a condom containing 45 tablets, which he had concealed in his body.
He had been out with two officers at a court hearing, says the governor, Mr John O'Sullivan. The officers saw a girl in the court going close to him, and they were suspicious about that because they didn't talk to each other, even though the girl was there with his brother. Searches of the offender were fruitless but later he was caught retrieving the drugs.
Visitors are regularly caught trying to pass on drugs, but prosecutions of them rarely follow. "It's not worth it, it takes too much time," says Mr O'Sullivan. Instead some visitors are barred while others are only allowed to see prisoners through a glass screen.
Two prisoners hanged themselves at the jail last year. Cell windows have no bars but they have a narrow section which opens, allowing a biro or similar object to be jammed across the space, on to which a sheet or string can be tied.
St Pat's has 50 school places and convicted prisoners have preference. Twenty prisoners sat the Junior Certificate last year and one is studying history and English for the Leaving. Mr O'Sullivan would like to offer more schooling but resources are limited.
Does he think schooling can turn young offenders away from crime? "No, it doesn't." The recidivism rate is about 70 per cent among those who study and those who do not.
Aside from classrooms St Patrick's has light engineering workshops, music classes and aerobics. There is a well equipped gym.
One of the most popular classes is chess. About 20 are enrolled and St Pat's team beat Trinity College Dublin in competition last week.
St Patrick's has been described as "a training school for Mountjoy" and according to Mr O'Sullivan all the major criminals in the headlines, linked to the Guerin murder and other big crimes, have been there.
But more than anything else, the institution is testimony to the growing numbers of young offenders. A year ago it had 100 fewer prisoners. Mr O'Sullivan expects more overcrowding if the planned reforms of the bail law are implemented. "That's going to cause, chaos," he says.